JDL Member Imprisoned in Bomb Plot Killed
JDL Activist Imprisoned for Role in Plot to Bomb California Mosque Killed in Arizona Prison
By ALEX VEIGA Associated Press Writer
LOS ANGELES Nov 5, 2005 — A Jewish Defense League activist imprisoned for his role in a plot to bomb a California mosque and the office of a Lebanese-American congressman was killed at a federal prison in Phoenix, an FBI spokesman said Saturday.
Earl Krugel, 62, was killed in an assault Friday evening at the Federal Correctional Institution, said FBI agent Richard Murray.
Murray wouldn't release further details but said federal authorities had opened a homicide investigation.
Krugel's wife, Lola, of Los Angeles said FBI investigators told her an inmate had struck her husband on the head from behind with a cement block.
"Earl never saw it happening," she said. "He was exercising."
He had been at the medium-security prison for three days, according to his sister Linda Krugel of Los Angeles.
Krugel, a former dental assistant from Reseda, and late JDL leader Irv Rubin were arrested in 2001 and charged with conspiring to bomb the King Fahd Mosque in Culver City and a field office of Republican Rep. Darrell E. Issa, who is Lebanese-American.
Krugel pleaded guilty in 2003 to one count of conspiracy to violate the civil rights of worshippers at the mosque and one count of carrying an explosive device in connection with a conspiracy to impede or injure an office of the United States.
He was sentenced in September to 20 years in prison.
The Jewish Defense League was founded in 1968 by Rabbi Meir Kahane. Kahane advocated the forcible removal of Arabs from Israel. He was assassinated in 1990 in New York.
By ALEX VEIGA Associated Press Writer
LOS ANGELES Nov 5, 2005 — A Jewish Defense League activist imprisoned for his role in a plot to bomb a California mosque and the office of a Lebanese-American congressman was killed at a federal prison in Phoenix, an FBI spokesman said Saturday.
Earl Krugel, 62, was killed in an assault Friday evening at the Federal Correctional Institution, said FBI agent Richard Murray.
Murray wouldn't release further details but said federal authorities had opened a homicide investigation.
Krugel's wife, Lola, of Los Angeles said FBI investigators told her an inmate had struck her husband on the head from behind with a cement block.
"Earl never saw it happening," she said. "He was exercising."
He had been at the medium-security prison for three days, according to his sister Linda Krugel of Los Angeles.
Krugel, a former dental assistant from Reseda, and late JDL leader Irv Rubin were arrested in 2001 and charged with conspiring to bomb the King Fahd Mosque in Culver City and a field office of Republican Rep. Darrell E. Issa, who is Lebanese-American.
Krugel pleaded guilty in 2003 to one count of conspiracy to violate the civil rights of worshippers at the mosque and one count of carrying an explosive device in connection with a conspiracy to impede or injure an office of the United States.
He was sentenced in September to 20 years in prison.
The Jewish Defense League was founded in 1968 by Rabbi Meir Kahane. Kahane advocated the forcible removal of Arabs from Israel. He was assassinated in 1990 in New York.
